FoodMarble, the digital digestive health company, has closed a seed investment round of $2.6 million. The round was led by Business Venture Partners (BVP), with participation from Breed Reply, Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland and SOSV. Breed Reply first invested in FoodMarble in 2017.
Following a hugely successful product launch in 2018, supported by a grassroots campaign, FoodMarble has opted to allow customers to invest in the Company through a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs (here). The funding will support expansion into new markets, the continued development of the FoodMarble AIRE, and other research and development projects.
The FoodMarble AIRE is the world’s first personal digestive tracker. Digestive health issues are a common and often untreated problem for people, affecting up to 1-in-8 people worldwide. Approximately one billion people have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and many more have intolerances to everyday food items and ingredients such as lactose, wheat, and fructose. Clinical breath analysis tests carried out today to diagnose these issues are typically hospital-based, single snapshot tests with large, expensive devices that may not always capture how the patient reacts to certain foods or food groups.
As an alternative, the FoodMarble Aire is a personal hydrogen breath test device that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app, providing immediate results to the user, with actionable insights to optimise their diet. Everyone’s digestion is unique, and FoodMarble allows users to measure how their body digests food in real-time to identify possible trigger components in different foods. FoodMarble empowers users to gather objective data of what is happening in their gut to avoid highly restrictive diets by accurately determining what foods cause symptoms via a simple, non-invasive breath test.
Commenting on the investment, Tim Stone, Partner, Breed Reply, said: “Designed to help the millions of people who experience digestive difficulties, FoodMarble is the first personal device of its kind. By making leading digestive science readily accessible through a connected handheld device, FoodMarble helps people take control of their digestive health. It is a brilliant combination of device, data and insight leading to real improvements in peoples’ lives. We are delighted to be continuing to support Aonghus and his team as FoodMarble moves on to the next stage of its development.”
Aonghus Shortt, Co-founder and CEO at FoodMarble added “The funding raised today, and from the Seedrs crowdfunding campaign, will help us continue our mission. Healthcare systems are not suited to helping people with common but incredibly challenging gut health issues. Digestive symptoms can be profoundly disruptive to normal life, and we are seeking to end that. Our mission is to help people cut through the complexity and uncertainty to find “their foods”. We started as a direct-to-consumer business, and we are delighted to now be able to also assist clinicians in managing their patient’s digestive health. We are just getting started. We want this to be a tool that every family can have in the home to monitor and manage their digestive health so that they can live healthy and happy lives.”